The Drumming Sands

This story is about a man named Misbah who discovers the control and corruption that the government unleashes on people and how wrong it is for them to do such a thing. A man named Jabbour is traveling with Misbah in the beginning. Jabbour is a rebel, he is against the government body that currently runs what I believe is a town in the southwestern part of Libya called Ghat. He uses the desert to explain to Misbah how the people feel about being controlled by the government which I think is from Europe. Jabbour says, about the desert, “It promises you everything, it promises you water and when you look for the water all you find in front of you is a mirage- mirages and mirages, a sea of mirages. They dance in front of you and stick their tongue out at you in mockery, leading you on without purpose.” I think Jabbour is hinting to Misbah that the foreign government does much of the same thing as the desert. The government promises the people opportunities and a fruitful life, but it is all just one big lie used to cover up their desire to rule the land and people. They tease the citizens by leading them to believe that they, the government, can provide great things to them, but in the end, these promises are nothing but figments of their imaginations. The lieutenant kills Jabbour and tries to make Misbah think that he perished in the desert because he went mad. Eventually Misbah figures out that the lieutenant had murdered him because the lieutenant knew that the man was a rebel and was trying to form an uprising amongst the people. At the end of the story it almost seems like Misbah is not really mad at the lieutenant for killing Jabbour because he sees that he cannot stand up against the law and try to make sure that the lieutenant receive just punishment. All in all I think that this story is about the importance of not letting someone or something stop you from obtaining freedom. You cannot give in to what you are told and become blind to the truth no matter how hard it may be to prevent such an occurrence.